'I know these people': Conservative slams Trump campaign’s 'shameful' pitch to GOP megadonors
01 February 2024
As former President Donald Trump scrambles to rake in campaign contributions from GOP megadonors, CNBC reported this week that his 2024 campaign staffers are pitching donors by encouraging them not to take anything Trump says seriously.
During Thursday's episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, guest host Alicia Menendez spoke with Republican and Bulwark writer Tim Miller about the pitch — which he isn't buying at all.
"Isn't it 2024? Have I been placed inside a time warp?" Miller said. "This was, I guess, a defensible thing for Trump campaign people to say to hold line establishment Republicans in 2016 to try to convince him to get on board back then. But we've all seen it. We've all seen that he does act on his words, and his actions are reckless, and they have caused death and destruction, and an attack on our Capitol. And so to try to buy this now is just to live in this fantasy world. And that's what is happening. I was making that face in the beginning because I know all these people. This is not the MAGA crowd."
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He continued, [Trump campaign adviser] Susie Wiles was my boss before she went to work for Trump. The donors were at this retreat in Miami. It was the Never Trump donors. It was the people that funded the PAC [political action committee] I worked for in 2016 to try to stop Trump from getting the nomination — [hedge fund magnate] Paul Singer, [billionaire] Charles Schwab — that's who was at this event. It wasn't a bunch of MAGA believers. It was a bunch of people that saw Trump for who he was in 2016 that tried to stop him in 2016 and then rather than sticking by their principles and staying in the fight have decided that they want to figure out any possible way to live in fantasy land and rationalize accommodating and enabling him, because they can then still have access to power and still influence over certain policies they care about when he gets back in there."
Miller emphasized, "To me, that is like the most shameful thing, because all of those folks know better, and they're just participating in this charade after the primary is functionally over over. Are we gonna have a bake-off between Nikki Haley's campaign and Donald Trump's campaign to see if they have to say? What more do you need to see? Rich guys? What more do you need to see? At least if you're going to go with Trump, have the courage of your — whatever you wanna call it — your convictions and just do it. Don't try to pull wool over my eyes and try to convince us he's going to be better. Come on."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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